Financial statement: LUT University solved global challenges and excelled in international rankings

The year 2022 was strong for LUT both academically and financially. 

“LUT’s research and education results remained nearly at last year’s level. We produced more high-level international science publications with a Publication Forum rating 2 or 3 than in previous years,” says Juha-Matti Saksa, rector of LUT University.

The academic outcomes included 59 doctoral graduates (63 in 2021) and 783 master's graduates (803 in 2021). A total of 46.79% of graduates obtained their degree in the target time (43.1% in 2021). The university produced 481 publications with a national Publication Forum rating of 2 or 3 (444 in 2021).

Rector Saksa points out that the year 2022 started out with both good and bad news. 

“In January, we celebrated the educational responsibilities in social sciences granted to us by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Soon thereafter, Russia launched an attack on Ukraine.” 

Due to the war and international sanctions, the university froze all collaboration with Russian and Belarusian organisations and summoned its exchange students in Russia back to Finland. The war also raised safety and supply security concerns in the university community.

The energy crisis triggered by the war underlined the importance of the university's long-standing on for the energy reform.

“Our expertise drew attention both nationally and internationally, and the energy report we prepared for decision-makers was widely praised by both decision-makers and media. In addition, we showed our support to Ukraine both financially and by, for instance, building stoves for households in need,” says Saksa.

As the COVID-19 pandemic started to subside, the university was able to celebrate its seventh ceremonial conferment of doctoral degrees. For the first time, the traditional academic festivities took place in Lahti. 

In autumn 2022, students and staff returned to LUT's campuses, and international mobility increased.

LUT excelled in international rankings and accreditations

LUT continues on its successful path in international rankings even though the competition keeps intensifying from one year to the next. Universities in Asia are climbing the ranking ladders, and increasing numbers of universities are included in rankings.

In the most recent Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, LUT was in the top 350. At a national level, LUT shared third place after the University of Helsinki and Aalto University. In the THE ranking of small universities, LUT was, impressively, eleventh in the world.

In the THE Impact Rankings, which measure universities against the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, LUT rose to the world’s top 200, being the best Finnish university on the list. In climate action (SDG 13), LUT was ninth in the world. 

In THE subject rankings, LUT was in the global top 250 in physical sciences, in the top 300 in technology, and in the top 600 in computer sciences.

LUT Business School ranked among the world’s top 150 business schools. Overall, there are roughly 16 500 academic business schools in the world. In May, LUT Business School received the internationally acclaimed five-year AACSB accreditation – an indicator of high quality in business education and research. 

Large donations during the fund-raising campaign

LUT started the year 2022 with a surplus and ended the year with a better result than expected. The university also increased its turnover by six million euros.

The third national fund-raising campaign connected to the governmental matched-funding scheme for Finnish universities ended in June 2022. Fund-raising was relatively active throughout the spring, taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war. 

The 2022 campaign yielded 3.1 million euros in donations. The greatest individual donations were made by Technology Industries of Finland (0.9 million euros) and the Foundation for Economic Education (0.7 million euros). In addition, LUT founded its first testamentary fund: Juhani Korhonen had bequeathed 0.5 million euros for the development of small modular reactors and waste heat utilisation.

The university was successful in its fund-raising and achieved a turnover of 107 million euros. The share of core funding by the Ministry of Education and Culture was 56.3 million euros and that of supplementary funding was 50.7 million euros.

LUT University's operational result after incomes and expenditures showed a surplus of 1.1 million euros. Before the mark-to-market valuation of LUT's investment portfolio, the university’s result showed a surplus of 3.9 million euros. This was 1.3 million more than planned. With the mark-to-market valuation of the investment portfolio, the overall result decreased by 12.5 million euros due to the stock market decline. The overall result for the accounting year was 8.6 million in deficit.